“If it wasn’t for all the kind souls on GoFundme we wouldn’t be able to get on track this fast. Thank you to every single person who made it possible for us to continue on with our dreams and adventures.”

Within 20 minutes the couple lost everything as their houseboat disappeared beneath the waves at John’s Pass, near Tampa, after the keel was ripped off.

Just two days earlier the couple – along with their pet dog – set off on their planned globe-trotting journey.

Nikki said: “We planned for a year to buy a sail boat, live on it and sail to the Caribbean. Our long term plan was to sail the world.

“We sold all of our belongings and car to buy our 28ft sailboat and moved into it with our two year old pug Remy.

“We finally got the boat ready for our trip to Key West with food and supplies for months and we went to anchor somewhere in Treasure Island and ran into a submerged object in the water and our dreams and hard work sank beneath us so fast.

“We lost every single one of our belongings with no insurance, but we all made it to land alive and we are not giving up on our dreams! ”

Nikki told the Sun Online last week: “We are trying to raise money to pay to get the boat out but we are already excited to get another boat.

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